Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) CEO Warren Buffett loves to talk up America’s promising future, and about how only a fool would bet against America.

On Friday, CNBC hosted a wonderful town hall with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett at Columbia University. 

During a visit to Columbia Business School, Warren Buffett highlighted that even during the crisis he never lost faith in the U.S. system, investing $8 billion in September 2008. Bill Gates agreed.

Just out from the Association of American Railroads, year-over-year rail traffic in October was down 15.3%, which is slightly worse than the year-over-year decline in September. Bottom line: the economy is in no hurry to fully bounce back and confirm the market rebound.

Well, what the heck: why not use a great line, slightly altered, to make a point? The point being that what Pink Floyd once called “what they fighting’s all about” is not, strictly, the economy. Sure, everybody seems to want to debate whether we’re going to have a V-shaped, U-shaped, […]

As Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company comes closer to finishing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe acquisition, a regulatory filing reveals that Buffett has completely liquidated shares he held in Union Pacific (UNP) and Norfolk Southern (NSC) railroads:

The hope that a firm will snub Cravath and raise their associate bonuses just got a little dimmer.

In addition to his investment acumen, the economic downturn has exposed the disciplined, financial focus of Warren Buffett.

Rail may indeed have a bright future, but for now, the business is still pretty ugly, and taking its time coming out of the recession.

If you were curious about the recent news regarding Goldman Sachs and Warren Buffett’s interest in acquiring the tax losses of Fannie Mae here is the scoop. This deal was agreed to and inked a month ago. It is still pending approval. So the information that was first reported by […]

So far, we really haven’t seen any analysis to the effect of: Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK) acquisition of Burlington Northern (BNI) was a great acquisition that will deliver huge value to Berkshire shareholders over time.

While the dominant headlines yesterday centered around Warren Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A) acquisition of Burlington Nothern Santa Fe (BNI), we wanted to highlight one of his other recent moves. Having already trimmed his stake in Moody’s (MCO) a few times prior, legendary investor Warren Buffett has sold even more […]

Warren Buffett’s huge Burlington Northern (BNI) buy may have had unintended consequences for his company Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB).

Behind every huge business deal is a huge law firm or two.  

The knee-jerk reaction to anything rail-related is to think “green.” And indeed, yesterday, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BNI) announced the acquisition of Burlington Northern (BNI), that rhetoric ran hot. Sure, trains are substitutes for exhaust-emitting, oil-consuming trucks.

Today, Buffett bought railroads, and car companies posted sales for October. Shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNI) closed at 97.00 up 27.5% after Buffett’s moves. The indexes were up and down, with the NASDAQ closing up 8 points at 2057 and the S&P 500 closing up 2 points […]

As a counterpoint to Joe Weisenthal’s belief that Burlington Northern (BNI) is only a good value to Mr. Buffett based on the prospect of liberal politics delivering stimulus and benefits for railroads, we’d like to highlight the following.

Warren Buffett’s giant $44 billion Burlington Northen deal (BNI) was conveniently advised by Goldman Sachs (GS) and Evercore partners.

Shockingly, investors are actually bidding up shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) following the news that it’s spending $44 billion to buy Burlington Northern (BNI). We’re not suggesting it’s a bad deal, only that when you’re paying out such a monster counterparty, you’re usually going to get a selloff not this […]

The big news of the morning was Warren Buffett’s purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation with his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle. Shares of BNSF (BNI) are up over 28% at 97.58, leading the path for other railroad companies like Union Pacific (UNP), up nearly 7% at 58.78 and CSX […]

While it isn’t the strongest of days for the market overall, we’re nevertheless surprised by the weak rally in railroad stocks, after Warren Buffett’s huge Burlington Northern (BNI) bid.

Once again, Fox Biz was screwed this morning by its decision to no longer compete in the morning.

Warren Buffett called into CNBC this morning to discuss his monster bet on the railroad industry. The whole transcript is below. As we’ve noted, we think the move is a gigantic bet on future stimulus, but Buffett would prefer to describe it as, simply, a huge bet on the future […]

Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK) whopping $44 billion acquisition of Burlington Northern (BNI) is a tremendous endorsement of the US railroad industry.

Warren Buffett’s gigantic, $44 billion wet kiss to the US rail industry has train stocks ablaze this morning.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) is making a big rail buy, acquiring Burlington Northern (BNI) for $100 per share or about $44 billion. The deal is the largest in Berkshire’s history.

Weitz Funds manager Wally Weitz (Weitz Value (WVALX), Partners Value (WPVLX), Hickory (WEHIX), and Partners III Opportunity (WPOPX)) answers our questions on media stocks, the health-care debate, Berkshire’s value in this economy, and the right reasons to re-enter the market.

From Bloomberg: Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) — The Oracle of Omaha retains his pre-eminence as a market visionary, outshining a new wave of financial strategists and the best-known central bankers. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is reg…

From Bloomberg: Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) — The Oracle of Omaha retains his pre-eminence as a market visionary, outshining a new wave of financial strategists and the best-known central bankers. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is reg…

The Oracle of Omaha believes that the U.S. economy has indeed improved. There are fundamental reasons to believe the U.S. is past its worst point of this downturn, and is now on the mend.

Every automaker is building an electric car right now. So who’s going to build the world’s most popular?

If you want to know how much green technology is front and centre in China’s economy, look no further than the country’s most-wealthy list.

The anniversary of Warren Buffett’s ride to the rescue of Goldman Sachs with a $5 billion cash infusion at the height of the Wall Street panic is a good opportunity to examine what the terms of his deal might tell us about the future of capital in the financial sector. […]

Warren Buffett has once again proven the naysayers wrong.

Warren Buffett has always said he’s not so big on technology.

So Warren Buffett and John Bogle are call for increased regulations and costs on short-term speculators, and a regulatory regime that favours long-term, more passive investors. They want the deck stacked more in their favour. Fine.

Warren Buffett and John Bogle are two longtime stock market veterans who endorse a sex-less, long-term view of the market.

After the recent market downturn and run-up, Warren Buffett may be losing his appetite for stocks…. and switching more into bonds.

Whitney Tilson, founder and managing partner of T2 Partners LLC, follows the advice of the master (Buffett):

One can only guess here, but Warren Buffett is probably a bit annoyed at the chairman of his Chinese car-battery investment BYD.

Chinese battery/car company BYD is preparing for an American invasion in 2010, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Euro Pacific Capital chief Peter Schiff showed up on Fox Biz to discuss Warren Buffett’s doom-mongering in the NYT today. Schiff tries to thread the needle, saying that Buffett is right that the dollar will collapse, but wrong to think that the bailouts and stimuli we’ve done so far were […]

In his call to get government spending under control, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett threw out this scary stat:

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, a supporter of Barack Obama and an indirect beneficiary of the bailouts, writes in a NYT op-ed to warn about the crushing mountain of debt the US government is now building up.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) has already made an estimated 430% on its 11-month old Chinese stock pick, battery maker BYD.

So the big news out of Berkshire Hathaway’s latest 13-F is that Warren Buffett has taken a stake in Beckton Dickinson (BDX). The company is a maker of medical supplies and devices.

As cool as his demeanor is, you really have to figure that Warren Buffett had stuck to his strict, no-derivatives-for-me attitude he seemed to hold all that time.

Looks like Warren Buffet has paid out over half the proceeds he received from writing credit default insurance on baskets of high yield bonds. And once again, folks are questioning the wisdom of his forays into the derivatives market.

We’ve been defenders* of Warren Buffett’s ability to navigate the financial crisis, even as critics have fired vollies at him for his company’s sagging stock price, ever-risky derivative bets and mediocre stock picks of late.

Score another one for the Oracle. BYD, the Chinese car and batter maker favoured by Buffett sidekick Charlie Munger has (surprise!) turned into a big winner.

Today will be a painful one for already-suffering Moody’s (MCO) shareholders, as Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) disclosed that it had cut its stake in the ratings agency by some 6 million shares. Buffett now owns about 17% of the company, down from just over 20%.

Apparently ABC television didn’t get the memo that they’re supposed to censor supporters of a second stimulus, as Paul Krugman alleged yesterday.

The winner of the Warren Buffett charity lunch is Canadian money manager Salida Capital. They paid $1.68 million for a chance to eat some steak with the Oracle next year.

As expected, lunch with Warren did not go for as much this time around as it did last year.

Warren Buffett was doing the rounds today! After talking with the Quick-ster on CNBC, he met his old pal Liz Claman at Fox Business Network, and had the chance to expound on a few more topics CNBC didn’t hit on.

Tim Geithner says it’s impossible because we have a strong independent Federal Reserve, but Warren Buffett has no reason to be politically correct. And in his interview with CNBC, he told Becky Quick: we are monetizing the debt. We are using printed paper to pay our government.

Add Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) CEO Warren Buffett to the “no green shoots” crowd.

Bummed that you can’t afford what Warren Buffett charity lunch? Have no fear. Here’s a nice-looking pair of Fruit of the Loom boxer-briefs autographed by Warren himself up for auction on eBay. There’s no bids yet, but the minimum is $500, and it doesn’t appear like the money’s going to […]

It’s that time again. It’s your chance to bid on a lunch with Warren Buffett, with proceeds going to the Glide Foundation.

Notably absent from this morning’s list of TARP escapees is Wells Fargo (WFC), the bank in which Warren Buffett has said he’d be willing to invest his entire net worth.

The most interesting part of Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders this year was his discussion on muni bonds, and the meaninglessness of historical default rates. As he noted, past default rates (always quite low) reflected a time when most issuance was un-insured, and thus it really was all on […]

During the recent Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) annual meeting, Warren Buffett admitted that signs of an economic recovery were few and far between, at least as his businesses.

Any old person can slam the ratings agencies and say they helped cause the bubble, but it’s another thing to step up and place a lot of your money where your mouth is.

Last week Volkswagen told Autoexpress that it will unveil an electric car “that people could actually buy at a reasonable price” this September. Yesterday it may have revealed part of its plan for getting there.

Update: As noted below, Warren Buffett had already admitted to restructuring his derivatives portfolio in this manner. But the NYP article isn’t as inonsequential as we’d originally (and mistakenly) suggested.

At the recent Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett said that Wells Fargo (WFC) was so healthy, he’d put his entire net worth into the stock if he could.

Warren Buffett is a fan of keeping it simple in his investment analysis. This chart, which plots the total market cap of the stock market as a percentage of GNP, is one of his favourites.

Warren Buffett sat down with CNBC’s Becky Quick this morning.  We’re as sick of the Buffett-palooza as you are by now, but we’ll listen to Warren on anything, and this is a concise way of catching up.

The Kabuki theatre known as the stress tests continues, as Bank of America (BAC) denies that it’s in the process of raising money, as first reported by FT.

Officially, the results from the stress test aren’t due to be released until Thursday, but the two big losers — Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) are still frantically trying to either raise cash or convince the Fed that they don’t need to.

Of course he’s talking his book here, but Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) CEO Warren Buffett remains extremely positive on Wells Fargo (WFC), the bank in which he owns a 7.2% stake.

Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting got started in Omaha, Nebraska. Some 35,000 people are expected to attend, many of them dressed in the blue blazers that are the uniform of Warren Buffett.

Charlie Munger couldn’t be much more blunt about his feelings towards cap and trade.

It’s getting toward that time when Warren Buffett holds his famous annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. So expect the media to turn a deep shade of “steak” over the next few days.

Last fall when the world fell apart, Warren Buffett made many famous investments, $3 billion in GE, $5 billion in Goldman.  He also made one sleeper investment, paying $230 million for 10% of Chinese battery maker BYD, now better known for offering a $22,000 electric hybrid in China.

We wondered when this would happen. After Fitch and S&P both cut their ratings on Berkshire Hathaway (BRK), Moody’s (MCO) was the odd one dragging behind.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett warned that it was “better to be a financial cripple with a government guarantee than a Gibraltar without one.”

Byron Trott, the banker at Goldman Sachs (GS) who advices Warren Buffett on dealmaking, is leaving the firm, reports Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs (GS) would like to pay back the TARP is early as next month, though to do so it needs to raise fresh outside capital. While credit is still hard to come buy, there’s a good chance that Goldman could pull it off if the wheels don’t come off […]

Fitch has cut Berkshire Hathaway down one notch, and S&P lowered the company’s outlook, a prelude to a downgrade.

It looks as though Fitch’s lowering of Berkshire Hathaway’s credit rating won’t be a one-off. S&P is doing its standard dance, pre-announcing that it’s likely to lower the company’s rating, as well. It always does this in steps — like it did with GE (GE) — first lowering the outlook […]

Wily old Warren Buffett is looking smarter on his financial bets, as bank stocks continue to rebound.

We’ve suggested that one mark-to-market fix that could work is a reduction of reserve requirements, so that banks can write down assets to appropriate levels without entering into a regulatory violation.

There’s no doubt that Berkshire Hathaway has done a lot of preparing for and thinking about Warren Buffett’s eventual retirement (or death).

Credit downgrade aside, Buffett put his peers to shame this year, proving that all his talk about prudence and conservatism wasn’t just bull. And unlike his paid-up peers, he didn’t draw an eyebrow raising salary that would bring a negative spotlight on his firm. Just $175,000.

Unlike with GE, this downgrade was not anticipated. There were plenty of reasons to think, given Buffett’s conservatism, that perhaps the ratings agencies wouldn’t find reason to worry. Alas, no. On a day when financials are rallying, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) is slipping, currently down 3%. Not huge, but again, compared […]

A day after GE got dinged by S&P, Berkshire Hathaway gets taken down a notch by Fitch. And the ratings agency, which doesn’t carry the heft of its peers, says the outlooks is negative, owing to its derivatives book. The agency also notes Warren Buffett’s age (he’s getting on in […]

The very first bailout of AIG (AIG) was pitched as a good investment for taxpayers, though by now we know it clearly wasn’t. Turned out, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) was offered two opportunities to try saving the company — first directly, and then alongside another private investor, Warren Buffett told Bloomberg.

At the heart of the mark to market crisis is a complaint that banks have to write down billions of dollars worth of assets to levels they regard as unrealistically low, which hurts banks’ ability to maintain regulatory capital requirements. To meet the requirements after the write-downs, banks then have […]

In theory, companies like Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) and GE (GE) have an advantage over other financials in that they could always dump an opearting unit if pressed for cash. GE could sell off its water desalinization business, or maybe GE Medical. Berkshire could sell Clayton Homes or See’s Candies or […]

Investors are already fretting about Berkshire Hathaway’s pristine financial standing, as the CDS market assigns the company a 13% chance of going totally bust. Meanwhile, Buffett’s latest stock moves — which may pan out over the long term — have gone the wrong way.

Was the Oracle of Omaha talking his own book on CNBC this morning? Barron’s Andrew Bary (sub. required) points out that Warren Buffett mentioned Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp in his marathon love-fest with Becky Quick this morning. He doesn’t suggest Buffett was lying, just noting the positive vibes.

Here’s the transcript of the Warren Buffett Squawk Box sitdown this morning.

Becky Quick’s all-day Buffett launched on CNBC this morning and the Oracle of Omaha sent global markets spinning with remarks that inflation was going to get as bad as the 1970s and tossing off the idea that the economy had “fallen off a cliff.”

We already mentioned that CDS spreads at Berkshire Hathaway are blowing through the roof on fear that it’ll lose its AAA rating, resulting in a host of calamities. So what exactly is the market telling us? Felix Salmon plugs in the numbers:

The cost of credit default swaps (debt insurance) on GE (GE) and Berkshire Hathaway is soaring.